Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Ok, I didn't buy from Amazon... so sorry. But I just had to come here and tell you how it worked out for me. First off, we had some atrocious pink laminate. It was stained, old and ready for the dump. I saw this product on some DIY show and I thought, "What the heck, I will try it" Of course my wife was on board too. We decided that we had nothing to lose by trying it. If it failed, I had $4000 budget for real granite. Now onto the install. You do have to clean the tops like you never cleaned before. In my case, I used two SOS and quite a lot of water and rinsing. The prep work took longer than the install. Welcome to Remodeling 101. While sanding is not needed, I would recommend a light sanding of Formica or other laminate. I found the primer sticks much better. Also do yourself a favor and remove the sink. Seriously. You will save so much time and effort. Sinks are kind of a pain to remove, but worth it. Undermounted sinks MAY not have to be removed. Not sure about that. However, when I started to apply the base coat, I soon realized that this was NOT going to cover the advertized square footage of the kitchen. The light color of the tops was really bleeding through. So, I put one coat on, waited over 8 hours and applied a second coat. Granted, it wasn't a 2:1 thing. More like 50% more. Anyway, I ended up buying an entire extra kit because I decided to do the bathrooms anyway. (Note that you can buy the individual paint colors and primer from the manufacturer.) Also the paint and primer should go onto the tops at an ambient temperature of 72F/20C or a bit warmer. I think this makes a HUGE difference, so I recommend a slightly warm kitchen. So, we installed the colors as the DVD and then I sanded the colors with 600 grit sandpaper. We then applied the top coat, waited 6 hours, sanded, then top coat again. I am so impressed with this that I can't even begin to describe. It is really quite shocking that it works so well. I really had doubts about this product, especially when I burned through a can of primer before I was half done with the project. However, it turns out well for me since I decided to do each bathroom (very little counter tops). As far as longevity, I can't comment. I saw a reviewer who said the water damaged her top coat. This surprised me because Poly really is quite waterproof. I am going to keep an eye on that part. I now am thinking of sanding and doing an additional top coat. I have more than enough to do that but I decided to email the company and see if three coats is really better than two. Sometimes more is not better. So, I can recommend this product as an alternative to real granite. It isn't as durable or nearly as attractive as real stone, but it could get you buy if you have limited funds or a rental or just don't want to deal with your kitchen being down for 2 weeks for granite or other stone products. Thanks for reading my review. I will come back in a few months to comment on the product.